i 


GIFT   OF 


8061  - 
A  *N 


RECRUIT  PSYCHOLOGICAL 
EXAMINATION 


FOR 


ILLITERATES  AND  NON-ENGLISH-SPEAKING 
CITIZENS  AND  ALIENS 


TO  BE  USED  BY  RECRUITING  OFFICERS 

AT 

GENERAL  RECRUITING  STATIONS 


PREPARED  IN  THE  OFFICE  OF  THE 
SURGEON  GENERAL,  U.  S.  ARMY 


October,  1919 


WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE 
1919 


RECRUIT  PSYCHOLOGICAL 
EXAMINATION 


FOR 


ILLITERATES  AND  NON-ENGLISH-SPEAKING 
CITIZENS  AND  ALIENS 


TO  BE  USED  BY  RECRUITING  OFFICERS 

AT 

GENERAL  RECRUITING  STATIONS 


C.YI  A-T 


PREPARED  IN  THE  OFFICE  OF  THE 
SURGEON     GENERAL,     U.     S.    ARMY 


October,  1919 


WASHINGTON 
GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE 

1919 


WAR  DEPARTMENT, 

WASHINGTON,  October  3, 1919. 

The  following  publication,  entitled  "  Recruit  Psychological  Exam- 
ination for  Illiterates  and  Non-English-Speaking  Citizens  and 
Aliens,"  is  published  for  the  information  and  guidance  of  all  con- 
cerned. 

[702,  A.  G.  O.] 
BY  ORDER  OF  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR  I 

PEYTON  C.  MARCH, 

General,  Chief  of  Staff. 
OFFICIAL  : 

P.  C.  HARRIS, 

The  Adjutant  General. 


RECRUIT  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION. 


The  preparation  of  the  recruit  psychological  examination  was 
undertaken  in  May,  1919,  on  receipt  of  the  following  letter  from  The 
Adjutant  General: 

Beginning  May  1. 191Q>xecruiting  agencies  will  accept  for  enlistment,  illiterates 
and  non-English-speaking  citizens  and  aliens.  In  order  that  only  men  with 
sufficient  intelligence  to  perform  the  duties  of  a  private  soldier  may  be 
accepted,  it  is  desired  that  you  prepare  without  delay  a  psychological  test 
for  applicants  of  the  aforesaid  class.  This  test  should  be  "  Esperanto "  in 
character.  It  should  be  a  simple  test ;  one  that  can  be  applied  by  most  anyone, 
and  one  that  will  determine  whether  or  not  an  applicant  possesses  the 
necessary  degree  of  intelligence  to  permit  him,  with  proper  training  and 
thorough  instruction  in  English,  to  carry  on  in  the  Army.  As  soon  as  com- 
pleted, the  test  will  be  sent  to  this  office,  attention  Operations  Branch. 

A  survey  of  the  demands  underlying  this  letter  at  once  indicated 
that  the  Section  of  Psychology  had  no  simple  task  to  perform.  Here 
was  a  demand  for  a  special  method  of  detecting  low-grade  appli- 
cants for  enlistment  whose  ignorance  of  English  makes  inapplicable 
the  ordinary  methods  of  estimating  intelligence.  Speaking  a  foreign 
tongue,  these  applicants  cannot  communicate  directly  with  the 
examiner  except  by  means  of  a  sign  language.  It  was  necessary, 
therefore,  to  adopt  a  method  of  examination  which  would  allow  the 
candidate  for  enlistment  opportunity  for  adequate  self-expression 
and  provide  the  examiner  with  a  dependable  measure  of  the  ex- 
aminee's reactions. 

Furthermore,  the  examination  should  require  of  the  examiner  little 
or  no  technical  ability.  It  should  be  prepared  for  ngftj>{;.  rpprnjt.ir>jo; 
stations  to  eliminate  an  inferior  class  of  candidates  before  they  are 
sent  to  recruit  depots  for  enlistment  after  acceptance  by  profes- 
sional boards.  This  requirement  at  once  eliminated  the  possibility 
of  using  the  psychological  methods  which  had  been  previously 
developed  for  the  Army.  These  methods  had  been  prepared  for  the 
use  of  experts  and  specially  trained  examiners.  They  also  pre- 
supposed a  well-organized  staff  of  specialists  in  both  administra- 
tive and  clinical  phases  of  mental  testing.  Without  the  assistance 
of  such  a  staff,  the  only  available  methods  *  would  be  quite  unwieldy 
for  a  recruiting  officer. 

1  The  Navy  has  reported  success  in  using  a  short  psychological  examination.  See 
article  entitled  "  Mental  Examinations  for  Recruits  "  by  Lieut.  L.  E.  Bisch,  U.  S.  Naval 
Medical  Bulletin,  Vol.  13,  No.  2,  April,  1919.  The  examination  described  in  this  article 
requires  fair  language  ability  in  the  recruit,  and  a  rather  high  degree  of  technical  skill 
in  the  examiner. 

143754 — 19  3 


4  RECRUIT  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION. 

The  difficulty  of  meeting  these  requirements  was  further  increased 
by  the  fundamental  demand  that  the  examination  discriminate  accu- 
rately between  applicants  having  inadequate  intelligence  and  those 
who  have  the  capacity  to  carry  on  in  the  Army.    It  should  reveal 
not  only  the  men  who  are  so  dull  that  they  would  be  utterly  use- 
less in  the  Army,  but  also  those  who  lack  sufficient  adaptability  for 
activities  as  various  as  would  be  required.     It  should  also  aid  in-* 
the  exclusion  of  those  applicants  whose  learning  ability  is  too  lim-  / 
ited  to  attain  in  a  reasonable  time   (three  months1)   the  ordinary  I 
literacy  requirements  for  enlistment.     Thus  the  demand  is  for  an  \ 
examination,  not  to  furnish  an  intelligence  classification  or  a  scale,  I 
but  to  provide  a  simple  and  workable  basis  for  a  "yes"  or  "no!^ 
judgment  concerning  mental  fitness  for  the  Army.  ' 

On  the  basis  of  these  general  demands  for  a  preliminary  segrega- 
tional  procedure,  the  following  specifications  were  adopted  for  guid- 
ance in  the  preparation  of  the  recruit  psychological  examination: 

(1)  It  must  be  an  individual  examination,  because  recruit- 

ing officers  deal  with  applicants  individually. 

(2)  It  should  be  usable  by  anyone  who  can  carry  out  simple 

directions. 

(3)  Language  requirements  should  be  eliminated. 

(4)  Neither  complicated  apparatus  nor  record  blanks  should 

be  required. 

(5)  An  absolute  judgment  of  the  correctness  of  the  exami- 

nee's reactions  should  be  possible. 

The  examination  was  developed  by  selecting  a  number  of  tests 
which  fulfilled  the  specifications  enumerated.  Classification  of  re- 
cruits on  the  basis  of  intelligence  qualifications  had  been  successfully 
accomplished  during  The  World  War  chiefly  by  means  of  two  group 
and  three  individual  examinations.  Group  examination  Alpha  and 
individual  examinations  known  as  the  Point  Scale  examination  and 
the  Stanford-Binet  examination  were  used  for  the  classification  and 
segregation  of  literate  recruits  arriving  at  camps  in  the  draft  quotas. 
Group  examination  Beta  and  the  individual  Performance  Scale  ex- 
amination were  used  for  illiterates.  These  examinations  provided 
a  large  number  of  tests  from  which  selections  could  be  readily  made, 
but  the  requirements  for  the  recruit  examination  were  such  that 
important  modifications  were  always  necessary. 

The  initial  selection  of  tests  was  made  on  the  basis  of  previous 
experience  in  the  use  of  psychological  methods  for  rating  and  clas- 
sifying men  of  the  draft.  Further  selections  and  adaptations  were 
made  after  trying  out  the  tests  in  the  examination  of  normal  school 
children  8,  9,  and  10  years  old.  In  June,  the  examination  was  used 
on  a  group  of  feeble-minded  men  and  boys  at  Vinelancl,  N.  J.,  and 

1  Circular  No.  382,  W.  D.,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Aug.  1,  1919,  Recruit  Educational  Centers. 
Note  especially  par.  8. 


KECRUIT  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION.  5 

the  results  were  compared  with  ratings  of  industrial,  social,  and 
educational  capacity  which  were  furnished  by  the  authorities  of  the 
New  Jersey  Training  School.  The  data  obtained  at  Vineland  indi- 
cated that  the  selection  of  tests  was  especially  effective  in  segregat- 
ing the  men  rated  low  in  industrial  and  social  efficiency. 

A  further  trial  of  the  examination  was  made  at  Camp  Upton  after 
a  group  of  illiterates  and  foreigners  had  been  sent  there  for  instruc- 
tion and  training  in  the  Recruit  Educational  Center.  This  group 
included  men  of  various  degrees  of  literacy  and  various  abilities  in 
the  use  of  English.  The  commander  of  a  company,  together  with  his 
noncommissioned  officers  in  charge  of  the  training  of  recruits,  pre- 
pared military  ratings  of  the  recruits  according  to  their  promise  as 
soldiers.  These  ratings  were  made  by  means  of  a  scale  prepared 
jointly  by  the  company  commander  and  his  noncommissioned  officers. 
The  scale  consisted  of  a  list  of  five  men  with  the  recruit  at  the  top 
rated  A,  because  he  showed,  in  their  combined  judgment,  more  prom- 
ise of  making  a  good  soldier  than  any  other  man  in  the  company. 
The  recruit  with  least  promise  of  all  men  in  the  company  was  placed 
at  the  bottom  of  the  scale  with  a  rating  of  E.  Intermediate  steps  in 
the  scale  were  similarly  established.  The  noncommissioned  officers 
then  took  this  scale  and  rated  each  of  the  other  men  in  the  company 
by  comparisons  with  the  five  men  of  the  scale.  All  of  the  work  in 
connection  with  making  the  scale  and  rating  the  men  was  carefully 
done  and  supervised.  Each  military  rating  thus  represents  a  com- 
posite judgment  of  the  noncommissioned  officers  concerning  the  abil- 
ity of  -a  recruit  in  their  company  to  become  a  good  soldier. 

Since  the  recruits  had  been  in  the  educational  center  only  a  few 
weeks,  it  was  impossible  for  the  noncommissioned  officers  to  be  abso- 
lutely sure  of  a  man's  potential  value  as  a  soldier.  The  judgment  of 
the  noncommissioned  officers  was  obviously  affected  by  the  fact  that 
the  recruits  with  previous  military  training  stood  out  with  greater 
promise  than  the  men  with  no  experience  in  the  Army. 

The  results  obtained  from  this  military  rating  of  the  recruits  were 
compared  with  the  scores  made  by  the  same  men  in  the  recruit 
psychological  examination.  These  comparisons  indicated  that,  with 
a  single  exception,  the  men  who  showed  promise  of  making  good 
soldiers  earned  more  than  20  points  in  the  psychological  examina- 
tion. The  men  rated  "  E,"  i.  e.,  those  who  in  the  judgment  of  the 
noncommissioned  officers  would  never  make  good  soldiers,  were  not 
able  to  score  more  than  17  points  at  the  most.  These  facts  indicated 
that  the  examination  would  fulfill  its  function  of  separating  the 
mentally  fit  from  those  unfit  to  perform  the  duties  required  of 
soldiers. 

On  the  basis  of  the  data  obtained  at  Vineland  and  Camp  Upton, 
four  tests  were  selected  and  adapted  for  use  as  the  recruit  psycholog- 


6  RECRUIT  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION. 

ical  examination.  These  tests  are  known  as  form  board,  cube  analy- 
sis, picture  completion,  and  spot  pattern.  To  inform  the  applicant 
what  is  expected  of  him  without  the  use  of  language  there  are  four 
demonstration  problems  for  each  test.  The  demonstration  problems 
are  immediately  followed  by  ten  test  problems  and  the  applicant's 
reaction  to  these  furnishes  a  basis  for  a  numerical  score.  A  short  de- 
scription of  these  tests  follows : 

I.  FORM  BOARD. 

The  form  board  is  probably  best  known  to  the  laity  as  the  cut-up 
puzzle.  As  used  in  this  series,  it  is  a  modification  of  earlier  and 
similar  tests  which  are  well  known  and  widely  used.  The  apparatus 
used  here  consists  of  a  sheet  of  cardboard  in  which  there  has  been 
cut  a  hole  4|  inches  square.  There  are  also  21  pieces  of  cardboard  of 
various  geometrical  forms.  The  hole  may  be  filled  by  different  com- 
binations of  these  pieces  which  fit  together  to  make  a  square  4J 
inches  on  a  side. 

The  examiner  demonstrates  this  test  by  picking  up  and  indicating 
a  combination  of  pieces  which  will  fill  the  square  and  then  solves  the 
problem  himself,  being'*  sure  that  the  applicant  watches  and  under- 
stands what  is  going  on.  He  then  selects  another  series  of  pieces  and 
indicates  by  gestures  that  the  applicant  is  to  fit  them  into  the  square. 
If  the  man  is  unsuccessful  after  about  a  minute  the  examiner  dem- 
onstrates this  problem  also.  This  procedure  is  repeated  with  two 
more  preliminary  problems.  The  subject  is  always  given  a  chance 
to  solve  the  problem  himself,  but  is  shown  how  to  do  it  if  he  is  un- 
successful. The  test  problems  are  presented  in  exactly  the  same 
way  as  the  last  three  demonstration  problems,  but  no  help  is  given 
the  subject  if  he  fails. 

Figure  1  shows  one  of  the  test  problems  with  the  pieces  correctly 
placed  in  the  square. 

II.  CUBE  ANALYSIS. 

This  is  a  modification  of  test  2  of  group  examination  Beta,  the 
examination  given  to  men  of  the  draft  who  were  deficient  in  reading 
and  writing  English.  The  apparatus  of  this  test  consists  of  14  pho- 
tographic reproductions  of  rows  and  piles  of  cubes  as  shown  in  figure 
2.  In  all  of  the  problems,  except  two  of  the  demonstrations,  some 
of  the  cubes  are  hidden  from  view.  Not  more  than  10  cubes  occur 
in  any  problem  in  order  that  the  examinee  may  indicate  the  number 
of  cubes  by  holding  up  fingers  if  he  does  not  know  the  name  of  the 
number  in  English. 

At  the  outset,  the  examiner  indicates  the  first  demonstration  prob- 
lem, counts  the  number  of  cubes,  and  shows  this  number  on  his 


RECRUIT  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION. 


fingers.  If  the  subject  does  not  get  the  idea,  further  demonstration 
is  made  by  building  a  model  with  actual  cubes.  In  the  second  dem- 
onstration problem,  the  examiner  indicates  to  the  subject  that  he  is  to 
count  the  number  of  cubes.  If  he  is  unsuccessful  this  problem  is 
also  demonstrated  by  use  of  the  actual  cubes  in  building  a  model. 
Two  other  preliminary  problems  are  given  in  the  same  way.  The 
test  problems  are  exactly  like  those  used  in  the  demonstration,  but 


15 


FIG.  1. — Form  board,  problem  5. 

no  help  is  given  in  case  the  applicant's  count  is  incorrect.    The  ac- 
tual cubes  are  never  used  in  the  test  problems. 

III.  PICTURE    COMPLETION. 

The  picture  completion  test  has  also  been  adapted  from  group  ex- 
amination Beta  and  is  a  further  modification  of  the  missing  parts  test 
which  is  used  in  the  sixth  year  of  the  Stanford-Binet  examination. 
Three  of  the  Stanford-Binet  pictures  are  used  together  with  eleven 
others,  some  of  which  were  used  in  test  6  of  group  examination  Beta 


RECRUIT  PSYCHOLOGICAL   EXAMINATION. 


and  some  of  which  are  new.  As  used  in  the  recruit  psychological 
examination,  the  test  consists  of  a  number  of  pictures  from  each  of 
which  some  essential  part  is  missing.  There  are,  for  instance,  a 
watch  without  one  of  the  hands  and  a  pistol  without  the  trigger. 

The  picture  of  a  hand  with  one 
finger  missing  is  used  for  the  first 
demonstration  because   the  incom- 
pleteness of  the  picture  is  very  ap- 
parent.    The  examiner  directs  the 
attention  of  the   applicant  to  the 
picture  and  points  out  the  missing 
part.     He   then   presents   a   second 
picture  for  demonstration  and  in- 
dicates that  this  time  the  man  is 
to  show  what  is  missing.     In  case 
the  man  does  not  succeed  in  a  few 
seconds   he   is   shown   the   missing 
part  by  the  examiner.     Two  other 
preliminary  problems  are  presented 
in  the  same  way.     The  test  problems 
are  presented  exactly  like  the  pre- 
liminary problems  except  that  no 
help    is   given   if   the 
subject  is  not  success- 
ful or  if  he  indicates 
that  a  wrong  part  is 
missing. 

IV.    SPOT  PATTERN. 

This  is  a  simplified 
form  of  test  8,  group 
examination  Beta. 
The  basis  of  the  ma- 
terials used  in  this  test 
is  a  rectangle,  6  by  4J 
inches,  which  is  di- 
vided into  twelve  11- 
inch  squares.  Differ- 
ent arrangements  of 
crosses — one  or  none 
within  a  square — appear  in  each  of  14  of  the  rectangular  patterns. 
These  are  called  the  exposure  patterns.  There  is  one  similar  rec- 
tangle, without  a  cross  in  any  square,  which  is  called  the  blank 
chart.  In  conducting  the  test,  an  exposure  pattern  is  shown  tem- 
porarily to  the  subject,  the  blank  chart  meanwhile  being  com- 


FIG.  2. — Cube  analysis  problems. 


RECRUIT  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION.  9 

pletely  covered  up,  and  then  removed  from  his  view.  Simultane- 
ously with  the  removal  of  the  exposure  pattern  the  blank  chart  is 
uncovered.  The  problem  for  the  subject  is  to  point  out  on  the 
blank  chart  each  square  which  contained  a  cross  in  the  exposure 
pattern. 

In  the  first  demonstration  problem,  an  exposure  pattern  contain- 
ing a  simple  combination  of  crosses  is  exposed  so  that  both  sub- 
ject and  examiner  can  see  it  for  about  10  seconds.  The  exposure  pat- 
tern is  then  concealed  and  the  examiner  points  to  the  spaces  in  the 
blank  chart  where  the  crosses  should  be.  A  second  exposure  pattern 
is  then  presented  for  5  seconds,  after  which  the  examiner  allows  the 
man  to  indicate  the  squares  of  the  blank  chart  in  which  there  should 
be  crosses.  If  he  fails  to  indicate  the  right  squares  the  man  is  shown 
the  exposure  pattern  again.  Two  more  preliminary  problems  are 
presented  in  the  same  way.  Figure  3  shows  the  exposure  pattern 
used  in  one  of  the  problems.  The  test  problems  are  presented  just 
like  the  preliminary  problems  except  that  a  second  exposure  is  never 
made  and  help  of  any  kind  is  never  given. 

Throughout  the  four  tests  of  this  examination  the  subject  is 
credited  with  one  point  for  each  correct  solution  of  a  test  problem. 
The  examiner  uses  any  convenient  system  for  keeping  count  of  the 
correct  solutions,  but  he  avoids  doing  anything  that  tends  to  distract 
the  attention  of  the  candidate.  Since  there  are  10  test  problems  in 
each  of  the  four  tests,  the  maximum  number  of  points  that  can  be 
earned  in  the  examination  is  40. 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  state  on  the  basis  of  the  preliminary  data 
what  score  a  man  should  make  in  order  to  be  considered  mentally 
fit  for  the  Army.  The  number  of  cases  examined  in  the  preliminary 
trials  of  the  examination  are  too  few  to  furnish  a  reliable  criterion. 
All  of  the  recruits  a>t  Camp  Upton  whose  military  ratings  indicate 
that  they  will  sjat5ceed  in  the  Army  made  scores  above  20,  which  is 
half  the  number  of  possible  points.  Only  one  recruit  with  a  score 
below  20  had  a  military  rating  which,  indicated  that  he  had  a  chance 
of  succeeding  as  a  soldier,  but  this  man  had  received  military  train- 
ing prior  to  his  admission  to  the  Recruit  Educational  Center.  Pres- 
ent data,  therefore,  indicate  that  the  minimum  score  for  passing  the 
recruit  psychological  examination  should  be  20  points. 

It  is  probable  that  this  score  will  admit  some  applicants  to  the  re- 
cruit depots  for  professional  examinations  who  should  have  been  elim- 
inated at  the  recruiting  office,  yet  it  is  deemed  preferable  to  set  the 
minimum  score  low  enough  at  the  outset  to  make  complete  profes- 
sional reports  available  on  a  dependable  number  of  the  border-line 
cases.  Should  the  dividing  line  be  placed  too  high,  the  professional 
data  on  the  border-line  cases  would  not  become  available,  since  the 
applicants  would  never  reach  the  recruit  depots. 

For  practical  reasons,  it  has  been  necessary  to  put  this  examination 
into  use  before  final  revision  and  complete  standardization  could 


10 


RECRUIT  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EXAMINATION. 


be  made.  Only  a  few  recruits  of  the  type  for  which  the  examination 
is  prepared  had  arrived  at  the  Recruit  Educational  Center  at  Camp 
Upton  when  the  tests  were  originally  selected  for  trial.  This  group 
was  too  small  to  furnish  dependable  data  on  the  basis  of  which 
finished  tests  could  be  prepared.  At  the  same  time,  there  was  imme- 


x 


X 


X 


X 


FIG.  3. — Exposure  pattern  for  spot  pattern  test. 

diate  need  for  the  best  psychological  examination  that  could  be  of- 
fered. Psychologists  must  follow  up  the  use  of  this  examination, 
not  only  to  determine  precisely  the  passing  score  which  should  be 
required,  but  also  to  refine  and  revise  the  tests  in  the  light  of  accu- 
mulating data. 

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